REPORT ON THE WORK OF THE STANDING COMMITTEE

OF THE NATIONAL COMMITTEE OF THE

CHINESE PEOPLE'S POLITICAL CONSULTATIVE CONFERENCE 

Delivered at the Second Session of

the 13th National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference

on March 3, 2019

Wang Yang

Fellow Members,

On behalf of the Standing Committee of the 13th National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), I present this report to you for deliberation. 

I. 2018 in Review 

2018 was the first year in implementing the guiding principles from the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and the opening year in the work of the 13th CPPCC National Committee. Under the strong leadership of the CPC Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core, the National Committee and its Standing Committee studied and put into practice Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era and implemented the guiding principles of the 19th CPC National Congress and those of the second and third plenary sessions of the 19th CPC Central Committee.

We raised our consciousness of the need to maintain political integrity, think in big-picture terms, follow the leadership core, and keep in alignment; enhanced confidence in the path, theory, system, and culture of socialism with Chinese characteristics; and resolutely upheld General Secretary Xi Jinping's core position on the Party Central Committee and in the whole Party, and resolutely upheld the Party Central Committee's authority and centralized, unified leadership.

With commitment to the coordinated implementation of the five-sphere integrated plan¹ and the four-pronged comprehensive strategy² and to our two main purposes of pursuing unity and democracy, we built on past achievements and made new innovations in our work. We gave full play to the CPPCC's role as a body dedicated to consultation, worked hard to perform our duties of political consultation, democratic oversight, and participation in and deliberation of state affairs, and carried out our dual responsibility of offering suggestions and building consensus. We fulfilled our political responsibilities of implementing the CPC Central Committee's decisions and plans, of meeting its requirements for CPPCC work, and of pooling the wisdom and strength of all Chinese people, at home and overseas, to realize the Chinese Dream of national rejuvenation. We made new advances in all areas of work and exhibited a new look and image of the CPPCC in the new era.

Over the past year, the Standing Committee has upheld the Party's overall leadership over CPPCC work. We have strived to live up to the solemn name of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and to the mission entrusted to us by this institution. We have kept in mind that the CPPCC is a political organization and it must place emphasis on politics; that it is an important institution for people's democracy and it must follow a people-centered philosophy in fulfilling its duties and responsibilities; and that it is a body dedicated to consultation and it must take practical and realistic measures to enhance its capacity for consultation. With a view to laying foundations and securing long-term benefits, we laid special emphasis on three initiatives.

First, we conducted a study campaign for General Secretary Xi Jinping's important ideas on strengthening and improving CPPCC work.

The National Committee of the CPPCC took it as its primary political task to study and implement Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era and the guiding principles of the 19th National Party Congress. And it believed that this task was essential for CPPCC committees at all levels to raise their political integrity.

With the approval of the CPC Central Committee, the CPPCC conducted a study campaign for General Secretary Xi Jinping's important ideas on strengthening and improving CPPCC work between May and September 2018, covering all CPPCC committees and involving committee members at all levels nationwide. The National Committee's 24 vice chairpersons attended symposiums held by committees of 31 provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities directly under the central government. We also convened a theoretical seminar of all committees to exchange views and discuss specific measures on improving CPPCC work. The seminar produced positive results in the political and theoretical fields and in terms of specific work.

In mid-November 2018, General Secretary Xi Jinping presided over a meeting to hear a report on the CPPCC's study initiative, and delivered an important speech. Within the framework of studying and implementing the guiding principles of the speech, the Standing Committee held a meeting to discuss the CPPCC's efforts to improve itself, the first meeting of its kind in the 21st century. As a result, we have a more thorough understanding of the CPPCC's new orientation and mission in the new era—which is for the CPPCC to make itself a better-developed, more clearly defined system and play its consultation role more effectively. We have enhanced our understanding so that our members may think and act in line with the guiding principles of General Secretary Xi's speech, and have made detailed plans for implementing the CPC Central Committee's arrangements and requirements for CPPCC work.

Second, we strengthened Party building in the CPPCC for the new era.

The CPPCC is an important institution for CPC-led multiparty cooperation and political consultation. As such, Party building in the CPPCC bears on the direction and quality of its work.

The leading Party members' group of the National Committee organized studies and held its first forum on Party building for CPPCC committees at all levels. With political building as the overarching task, the leading Party members' group made progress in all areas of the CPPCC's Party building. It studied and acted, in a timely manner, on the Guidelines on Strengthening Party Building in the CPPCC for the New Era, issued by the CPC Central Committee's General Office. Based on these, it set eight key requirements, including attendance by its members who are also Party members to regular group meetings for those in leadership positions and Party branch meetings for those who are ordinary Party members. It also established a leading group to take charge of Party building within the National Committee.

We worked hard to fulfill the general requirements on Party building for the new era, and enhanced the organizational system, institutions, and mechanisms for Party leadership of CPPCC work, thus furthering Party organizations' leadership over this work. Party building has provided a firm guarantee for better fulfilling our mission and tasks in the new era.

Third, we gave greater priority to improving our work.

Improving work quality is essential for advancing the Party and country's undertakings in the new era. It is also a pressing need for strengthening the CPPCC's work.

Targeting areas of weakness and inadequacies, we took a markedly more quality-oriented approach, and shifted the focus of CPPCC work from "what has been done" and "how much has been done" to "what results have been produced." As part of this, we issued guidelines on improving the quality of CPPCC proposals. Hence, greater efforts were made to solicit proposals developed collectively as well as those formulated when the National Committee was not in session and to increase consultation on how to process proposals. We refined consultation topics in advance and carried out follow-up discussions afterwards. More emphasis has been placed on interactions and exchanges in all consultations, and on the consultation atmosphere and outcomes.

To overcome time and geographical constraints on our work, we established a mobile platform allowing members to conduct consultations and deliberations online. We instituted an open discussion system to facilitate a frank exchange of views and closed-door seminars with non-CPC members, private businesspeople, specialists, and scholars so as to build consensus.

We initiated committee-member lecture programs and awareness-raising tours for major and special tasks, through which to explain policies and offer guidance. We formulated documents for measures to improve our consultations and carry out evaluations of our suggestions.

Over the past year, the Standing Committee has focused on the central tasks of the Party and country, fulfilled its duties with commitment to pursuing unity and democracy, and completed the following work:

1. Making and consolidating breakthroughs in theory and building on the common theoretical and political foundation 

We organized activities to study and implement Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era and the guiding principles of the 19th CPC National Congress and the second and third plenary sessions of the 19th CPC Central Committee. We also conducted sessions to study General Secretary Xi Jinping's speeches at important meetings, including conferences to commemorate the 200th Birth Anniversary of Karl Marx and the 40th anniversary of China's reform and opening up initiative, as well as the most recently amended Chinese Constitution and CPPCC Charter. With these efforts we have laid a solid theoretical foundation for upholding Party leadership and socialism with Chinese characteristics.

We instituted a seminar system to study Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, developed systems for the Chairpersons Council to hold collective study sessions and brain-storming sessions, and improved the study system in which the theoretical study group of the leading Party members' group charts the course of studies, making theoretical studies a regular practice for our members.

We enhanced the training of National Committee members, particularly new members. The first training session was attended by more than 500 new members, and a total of more than 9,200 CPPCC members and staff of CPPCC bodies nationwide received training over the course of the year.

We organized study sessions on implementing the principles of General Secretary Xi Jinping's expositions on China's new model of political party system, and staged events to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the May Day slogans on convening a new political consultative conference proposed by the CPC Central Committee in April 1948, thus recalling our commitment to cooperation and to working hand in hand for progress.

2. Underscoring the unique feature of the CPPCC as a body dedicated to consultation, and harnessing its strengths in offering suggestions and building consensus

We continued to develop democracy and enhance unity at the same time, and fulfill our dual responsibility of offering suggestions and building consensus, and gave full play to our role as a body dedicated to consultation.

In the past year, we held one plenary session, two special meetings of the Standing Committee, two special consultative meetings, 19 biweekly consultative forums, two online consultative meetings, an online discussion, 18 consultative meetings with Party and government departments, and four consultative meetings on the handling of proposals. Through these engagements, we made yet further progress in developing a political consultation framework characterized by institutionalized, orderly, and multi-tiered consultations and extensive participation of all sectors of society.

We solicited opinions from an extensive range of people, chose consultation topics through well-conceived steps, drew up detailed consultation plans, made meticulous arrangements for consultations, and ensured the results of surveys and studies were put to use. We refined our suggestions through exchange of opinions, pooled wisdom through discussions, and increased the practicality and effectiveness of our suggestions.

We attached greater importance to interaction in consultation, to enable us to have a better understanding of issues and to incorporate into consultation the tasks of making suggestions, providing support, and exercising oversight. As a result, the consultation and deliberation process has become one in which to provide theoretical guidance, communicate state policies, remove doubts, and enhance confidence; and one in which to share information, see matters from alternative viewpoints, and exchange views. This has enabled us to develop consensus on the Party and state's major principles and policies and foster strong synergy for spurring all sectors to work as one in implementing the Party and state's decisions and plans.   

3. Conducting consultations with a focus on the central tasks of fighting the three critical battles against potential risk, poverty, and pollution, and on promoting high-quality economic development

To promote targeted poverty reduction and alleviation, we conducted in-depth surveys in areas of deep poverty, such as the three regions and three prefectures³. The Standing Committee held a special consultative meeting on poverty alleviation in areas of deep poverty and made a positive contribution to the national endeavor to fight poverty.

To ensure the prevention and control of air, water, and soil pollution, we dispatched our members to 14 provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities directly under the central government to conduct surveys, and the Standing Committee held a special consultative meeting for proposals on pollution prevention and control. We conducted a series of activities to study and discuss such issues as rural living environments, eco-migration, marine resources, nature reserves, the implementation of the lake and river chief systems, and the green development of the express delivery sector. These efforts have contributed to the healthy development of our ecological environment.

To forestall and defuse major risks, we conducted in-depth research to establish the situation in relation to risks. We held seminars with government departments, financial institutions, and enterprises, and hosted a special consultative meeting on improving the system for forestalling systemic financial risks.

To promote high-quality development and advance supply-side structural reform, we organized surveys and inspections with focus on intensifying basic research, promoting major original innovation, and facilitating the healthy development of emerging sectors, such as artificial intelligence, new-energy vehicles, and the sharing economy, and held a special consultative meeting on developing the real economy and improving the quality of the supply system.

To spur high-quality development of the private sector, we consistently offered suggestions on increasing the confidence of private businesses, relaxing restrictions on market access, and making it easier for enterprises to obtain financing. We worked to ensure all policies and measures to support the private sector were effectively implemented.

To advance implementation of the rural revitalization strategy, we carried out surveys and deliberations on fostering a contingent of professional rural personnel to serve the agricultural sector, rural areas, and rural residents, on promoting integrated development of rural and urban areas and of the primary, secondary, and tertiary industries in rural areas, on building small towns with distinctive features, and on achieving industrial transformation and upgrading in rural areas. We hosted a consultation meeting with Party and government departments to discuss work related to agriculture, rural areas, and rural residents. These efforts have helped advance agricultural and rural modernization.

To promote coordinated development of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, development of the Yangtze Economic Belt, revitalization of northeast China, development of the Hainan Pilot Free Trade Zone, and green development of the Dabie Mountains, we conducted surveys and offered suggestions on promoting coordinated regional development.

We held quarterly seminars to assess macroeconomic situations, studied new circumstances and new problems on a regular basis, and offered practical ideas and suggestions on possible responses.

4. Serving the people and moving forward efforts to improve people's wellbeing and advance social progress

Responding to the evolution of the principal contradiction facing Chinese society, we gave more attention to people's ever-growing needs for a better life in our consultations and democratic oversight.

We focused on the development of education as a priority. We offered suggestions on reducing the heavy extracurricular burdens on primary and secondary school students, developing world-class universities and disciplines, and promoting the participation of the private sector in the development of education, thus contributing to the development of education that meets people's needs.

We put forward suggestions on issues of immediate concern to the people such as employment and social security, and carried out research and consultations on long- and medium-term demographic change and economic and social development, maritime rescue services, and the volunteer services management system.

To promote the Healthy China strategy, we consulted extensively on refining the new operating mechanisms for public hospitals, improving community-level healthcare services, building up the ranks of general practitioners, enhancing elderly care service systems, and promoting the Fitness for All initiative. These efforts have resulted in better national healthcare policies.

To advance the rule of law, we offered suggestions on the formulation or revision of several regulations and laws, such as the regulations on online protection for minors, the law on social security for veterans, and the regulations on the registration and management of social organizations, and we also made proposals on comprehensive and integrated reform of the judicial accountability system. We held biweekly consultative forums with a view to generally removing difficulties in enforcing court rulings, thereby helping improve the law-based governance of our country.

We focused on building China into a country with a strong socialist culture. We studied ways to promote the work ethic of model workers and the spirit of fine workmanship, protect and utilize resources related to the CPC's early history, develop cultural and creative industries, protect historical and cultural cities and towns, protect and utilize major historical and cultural sites, develop the Grand Canal cultural belt, teach calligraphy, and keep alive and develop Chinese dramas and operas.

We organized activities for National Committee members to visit teachers on Teachers' Day and trips for them to take part in community-level events in such fields as science and technology, culture, healthcare, and sports. We effectively handled people's letters and visits.

5. Committing ourselves to great unity and solidarity, and bringing together the will and strength of the people

A mechanism was put in place to facilitate exchanges on the participation by all political parties in the general affairs of CPPCC work; and CPPCC special committees conducted consultations and research projects in conjunction with the central committees of various democratic parties. We increased contacts with our members who are intellectuals and not in the CPC and who are from the non-public sector and new social groups, and promptly relayed any opinions or complaints they had.

We created new ways for National Committee members from ethnic minorities and religious groups to engage in study sessions, inspection tours and group consultations, and held forums to hear reports from them on social conditions and public sentiment. Members also discussed a range of issues, made suggestions, and built consensus on these issues. The issues they considered included how to promote exchanges and interactions among different ethnic groups, extend the use of mandarin and Chinese characters, improve the working and living environment for people in border areas, develop primary and secondary boarding schools in areas with large ethnic minority populations, uphold the principle that religions in China must be Chinese in orientation, and provide training for Tibetan Buddhist believers.

Visits were made to five cities and provinces to give talks on the guidelines from General Secretary Xi Jinping's remarks during his meeting with Hong Kong and Macao delegations on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of China's reform and opening up. We arranged for National Committee members representing Hong Kong and Macao to conduct inspection tours on the mainland and engaged them in consultations on the development of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay area. In addition, we organized exchange programs for Hong Kong and Macao youth delegations to come and gain first-hand experience of the mainland. We encouraged National Committee members from Hong Kong and Macao to support their governments and chief executives in exercising law-based governance. We unequivocally opposed "Hong Kong independence."

We co-hosted the first Straits forum on community-level governance and carried out studies and discussions on implementing the Measures to Promote Cross-Straits Economic and Cultural Exchanges and Cooperation and on developing business startup bases for young people from both sides of the Straits. We strengthened ties with relevant political parties, groups and public figures in Taiwan. We were resolute in opposing “Taiwan independence.”

We invited representatives of Chinese nationals overseas to attend the plenary session of the National Committee in a nonvoting capacity, and to conduct surveys and offer their suggestions on how to give full play to the role of the Chinese nationals overseas in protecting China's interests overseas.

6. Actively developing friendly ties with other countries and working hard to create a favorable external environment 

In accordance with China's overall diplomatic agenda, we engaged ourselves in pragmatic high-level exchanges, and enhanced ties with foreign institutions, political organizations, media, think tanks, and influential figures from all social sectors. We diversified international interactions in terms of both content and form. We told China's stories in an engaging way, stories about CPC governance of China, about the hardworking Chinese people in the new era, and about the new model of political party system and the CPPCC. And we advocated the building of a human community with a shared future.

We hosted, for the first time, events for foreign diplomatic envoys to China to experience the CPPCC themselves. Envoys from 41 African countries and representatives from the African Union visited the National Committee and attended forums. We held the Round Table of the Chinese and African Economic and Social Councils on the Belt and Road Initiative, and established the Sino-African friendship group in the National Committee.

We organized international exchanges for special committees, and carried out study tours and consultations on various issues, including overseas economic and trade cooperation zones, the New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor, regional economic cooperation between China and ASEAN, and China-Europe freight train services.

We supported the China Economic and Social Council in co-chairing the 16th session of the Sino-EU Round Table with the European Economic and Social Committee, and the China Committee on Religion and Peace in participating in the Asian Conference on Religion and Peace. We convened a meeting to assess the international situation, and supported National Committee members in promptly voicing their opinions on the latest trade frictions between China and the United States and contributing their suggestions, thus demonstrating the clear-cut stance and firm confidence of all political parties, people's organizations, and individuals from all ethnic groups and sectors of society when it comes to safeguarding China's national interests.

7. Adopting effective measures for self-improvement of the CPPCC in the spirit of reform and innovation

In implementing the CPC Central Committee's decisions and plans on deepening reform of Party and state institutions, we improved the setup of the special committees of the CPPCC National Committee and established the Committee on Agriculture and Rural Affairs.

We instituted systems for the Chairpersons Council to report their work to the Standing Committee and to hear work reports of the special committees, and improved the ways in which Vice-Chairpersons contacted and communicated with special committees. We called meetings of the directors of special committees, and strengthened CPC branch groups of special committees under the leading Party members' group of the National Committee so that special committees could better play a fundamental role in accomplishing the National Committee's work.

Respecting the principal position of National Committee members, we ensured they strengthened their sense of responsibility. We initiated measures for Vice-Chairpersons to contact different sectors of society and National Committee members, and established a mechanism for members of the Chairpersons Council to call on local National Committee members on their business trips away from the capital. We revised and implemented rules for the performance of our members, and collected statistics on their performance, created performance records, and required Standing Committee members to submit annual work reports. As a result, a total of 298 work reports were submitted as scheduled, and members of the leading Party members' group commented on the performance of Standing Committee members who are also Party members.

In addition, we put in place a mechanism for National Committee members who are not Standing Committee members to attend Standing Committee meetings in a nonvoting capacity on a group-by-group basis. We called on all members to complete all tasks on their annual agendas, significantly increased the breadth and depth of how they fulfill their duties, and effectively eliminated the phenomenon in which some members would only show up for the plenary sessions, the so-called "once a year members". We enforced strict discipline among our members, expelling three members of the National Committee in accordance with relevant regulations.

We established a system for strengthening and improving surveys and studies, redoubled efforts in gathering information and reporting on social conditions and public sentiment with priority given to focal, thorny, and crucial issues, and improved the mechanism for identifying presentation and consultation topics for plenary sessions. We collected, for the first time, video-recorded oral accounts of historical data relating to China's 40-year experience of reform and opening up. We gave play to the role of the China CPPCC Theory Research Association in organizing studies on major theoretical and practical issues, and increased media coverage of important meetings and events and our members' performance.

Within the general framework of enhancing political Party building, we worked to strengthen the National Committee body. We improved the composition of our ranks of officials, stepped up on-the-job training and enhanced their competence with particular attention to key tasks, carried out internal inspections and danger-alerting sessions so as to prevent the practice of formalities for formalities' sake, bureaucratism, hedonism, and extravagance. No effort was spared to build the National Committee into a model body. We supported the work of the discipline inspection and supervision team sent by the CPC Central Commission for Discipline Inspection and the National Commission of Supervision.

We introduced a system for holding local CPPCC committee chairperson forums and convened a national work conference for the secretaries-general of local committees, in order to give better guidance to local committees' work. 

Fellow Members,

We owe our achievements in the past year to the firm leadership of the CPC Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core, to the strong support of CPC committees and governments at all levels and all sectors of society, and to the concerted efforts of the participating organizations of the CPPCC, its committees at all levels, and their members and bodies. On behalf of the Standing Committee, I wish to express our sincere thanks to all of them.

However, there are still points of weakness and shortcomings in our work. Some of our members and officials need to heighten their sense of mission and enhance their ability to carry out CPPCC work in the new era. There is still room for improving the systems and mechanisms for the CPPCC to better play its role as a body dedicated to consultation. We need to make further efforts in both offering better suggestions and building stronger consensus. We need to give local CPPCC committees better guidance over their work. And the National Committee's services need improving. These issues deserve our serious attention and we will take solid steps to address them.                         

II. Major Tasks for 2019 

This year marks the 70th anniversary of the founding of both the People's Republic of China and the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference. The following are the general guidelines for the CPPCC's work in 2019: 

· take Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era as our guide;

· implement fully all guiding principles from the Party's 19th National Congress and the second and third plenary sessions of the 19th Party Central Committee;

· enhance our consciousness of the need to maintain political integrity, think in big-picture terms, follow the leadership core, and keep in alignment;

· increase our confidence in the path, theory, system, and culture of socialism with Chinese characteristics;

· resolutely uphold General Secretary Xi Jinping's core position on the Party Central Committee and in the whole Party, and resolutely uphold the Party Central Committee's authority and centralized, unified leadership;

· remain committed to the missions and tasks of the CPPCC;

· keep in mind our main purposes of pursuing unity and democracy;

· focus on coordinated implementation of the five-sphere integrated plan and the four-pronged comprehensive strategy;

· work to secure a decisive victory in building a moderately prosperous society in all respects and successfully fight the three critical battles against potential risk, poverty, and pollution;

· fulfill our functions of political consultation, democratic oversight, and participation in and deliberation of state affairs;

· better fulfill our dual responsibility of offering suggestions and building consensus. 

With these efforts, we will be able to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the PRC's founding with outstanding achievements.

General Secretary Xi Jinping has emphasized that we will inevitably face an array of interwoven opportunities and challenges in 2019. For the CPPCC to deliver a good performance this year, it must stress politics, have the larger picture in mind, and follow the general principle of pursuing progress while ensuring stability. We must adapt ourselves to the changing times and changing situations, raise our awareness of potential dangers and possible concerns, fully understand all aspects of stability, and enhance measures for achieving progress. We must take Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era as the general program to guide CPPCC work; advocate the importance of learning and make real efforts in learning; and continue to consolidate our common theoretical and political foundation, which is anchored by our commitment to upholding and developing socialism with Chinese characteristics.

It is our new mission and goal in the new era to make the CPPCC a better-developed, more clearly defined system that effectively plays its role as a body dedicated to consultation. We should champion innovation and be bold in making innovations; and we should intensify theoretical studies, refine our institutions and systems, and make advances in practical work.

We must make it our central task to give more effective theoretical and political guidance and build up broad consensus in performing our duties. We must value unity and work for greater unity. We must mobilize all positive factors and encourage all to work as one to advance our great cause of national rejuvenation.

1. Giving top priority to studying and implementing Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era

We must continue our emphasis on theoretical studies, and institutionalize the practice of holding forums on Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese characteristics for a New Era. We will thus stay up to date on the guidelines from General Secretary Xi Jinping's latest important addresses and implement the major decisions and plans of the CPC Central Committee on enhancing the Party's political building.

We will consolidate and build on what we have achieved in studying and discussing General Secretary Xi's important ideas on strengthening and improving the CPPCC's work, and will implement in earnest the 27 measures set out in the National Committee's Implementation Plan for Major Tasks in Strengthening and Improving the CPPCC's Work. We will deepen our theoretical understanding through practice, and with a better theoretical foundation, we will be able to more effectively carry out our work.

Every special committee should organize special study seminars on a regular basis. We will organize study sessions aimed at self-teaching and self-improvement for National Committee members, and launch themed inspection tours for self-education for members who are not in the CPC. We will conduct open discussions on promoting unity and democracy through theoretical and political guidance. We will see to it that rational and sound theories become our common theoretical and political foundation. We will guide all political parties, people's organizations, and individuals from all ethnic groups and sectors of society in the CPPCC to increase their political, ideological, theoretical, and emotional identification with the CPC and socialism with Chinese characteristics, so that we unswervingly stay on the socialist path of political development with Chinese characteristics and never waver from it under any circumstances.

2. Offering suggestions on the central tasks of the Party and the country

We will work hard to put forward high quality recommendations and findings. The focus of these will be major problems and difficulties arising in completing the building of a moderately prosperous society in all respects, successfully fighting the three critical battles against potential risk, poverty, and pollution, and in deepening supply-side structural reform, specifically the efforts to consolidate the gains made in the five priority tasks⁴, to strengthen the dynamism of micro entities, to upgrade production chains, and to ensure unimpeded flows in the economy.

Greater efforts will be devoted to key political consultations. For instance, the Standing Committee will hold consultative meetings on promoting high-quality development of the manufacturing sector and on improving education to meet people's needs. We will also conduct consultations on innovation-driven development and basic public cultural services in rural areas.

Based on in-depth studies, we will engage in consultations on issues which concern the public and affect people's immediate interests through biweekly consultative forums and online consultations. Such issues include creating jobs, boosting the sharing economy, revising the Copyright Law, developing the Grand Canal cultural belt; ensuring rural roads are well built, managed, maintained, and operated; training preschool teachers; promoting family ties and virtues and positive education; developing a system for elderly care services; implementing the Healthy China strategy; and safeguarding personal information.

We will ensure oversight plays a role in consultation. To this end, we will carry out consultative oversight to ensure better implementation of major Party and state policies and plans on poverty alleviation, sound development of the private sector, and the protection of nature reserves and grassland ecological conservation.

3. Making greater efforts for unity and friendly ties

We will improve the systems for sharing information, holding forums and discussions, and carrying out joint study and research activities. We will create conditions for National Committee members from the democratic parties and those without party affiliation to duly perform their duties. We will create new channels for exchanges with intellectuals who are not CPC members and people from the non-public sector and new social groups.

We will fully implement the Party's policies on ethnic groups and its basic guidelines on religious affairs, and complete studies and consultations on how to properly handle ethnic affairs in cities and manage places of worship in the new era.

We will fully and correctly implement the principle of “one country, two systems,” under which the people of Hong Kong govern Hong Kong, the people of Macao govern Macao, and both regions enjoy a high degree of autonomy. We will support the governments and chief executives of the two regions in exercising law-based governance. We will continue the program for young people from Hong Kong and Macao to take study trips to the mainland, and we will give suggestions on how to increase exchanges between young people in Hong Kong and Macao and on the mainland and on the Development Plan for the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay area.

We will study and implement the guiding principles from General Secretary Xi Jinping's speech at the meeting to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the publication of the Message to Our Compatriots in Taiwan. We will uphold the one-China principle and the 1992 Consensus, and continue our firm opposition to Taiwan independence. We will deepen exchanges with relevant political parties, groups and public figures in Taiwan, and co-host the Straits Forum and related events. We will unite with Chinese nationals overseas and work to safeguard their lawful rights and interests.

4. Contributing wisdom and strength to major country diplomacy with Chinese characteristics

We will actively carry out exchanges of high-level visits, and create new ways of conducting public diplomacy and people-to-people and intercultural exchanges. Leveraging the roles of the National Committee's special committees, the China Economic and Social Council, and the China Committee on Religion and Peace, we will increase communication and cooperation and forge broad consensus. In this regard, we will host the 17th session of the Sino–EU Round Table, the Belt and Road Seminar for International Cooperation, and the International Seminar on Peaceful Dialogue between Different Religions, among others.

We will arrange for National Committee members to conduct research on boosting cooperation on innovation under the Belt and Road Initiative and on issues concerning the recruitment of overseas talent. We will tell China's stories to the outside world in an engaging way, safeguard its sovereignty, security, and development interests, and promote the building of a human community with a shared future.

5. Making solid progress in self-improvement of the CPPCC

We will take steps to develop a system for effective consultation and deliberation. We will, establish a specialist think tank and a talent pool for participating in the deliberation of state affairs so that National Committee members may offer high quality suggestions. To unlock the CPPCC's potential and efficiency as a body dedicated to consultation, we will harness the advantages of the internet by improving the functions of the mobile platform to assist members in performing their duties and by hosting distance consultations and online discussions.

We will hold meetings on the work of special committees and issue normative documents to specify detailed rules on implementation for all special committees. We will explore ways and forms of carrying out consultations and performing duties that give play to the CPPCC's inclusiveness, so that different sectors of society represented in the CPPCC better fulfill their roles in CPPCC work.

We will improve study, training, services and management in relation to our members and enhance their sense of responsibility and their initiative in both offering suggestions and building consensus. We will make improvements in our routine work, such as submitting proposals, giving lectures, making inspections and visits, and reporting on social conditions and popular sentiment. We will introduce a practice of selecting survey topics proposed by our members and an appraisal and review mechanism for specific survey and research projects.

With the goal of building the National Committee into a model body, we will enforce strict requirements with regard to political education and the management and oversight of officials, and intensify our efforts in improving Party conduct, building political integrity, and fighting corruption. We will build a contingent of competent officials and improve the capacity of the National Committee body to provide services.

We will continue to hold the local CPPCC committee chairperson forum and secretary-general work conference and conduct research on specific topics concerning the work of local committees with a particular focus on county-level committees. We will hold a national conference for local committees to share their work experience. With these efforts, the work of CPPCC committees at all levels will be better coordinated.

6. Holding celebrations for the 70th anniversary of the CPPCC's founding

In line with the overall arrangements to be made by the CPC Central Committee, we will ensure all work concerning the celebrations of the PRC's 70th anniversary is completed successfully, and events to mark the occasion will be hosted in conjunction with celebrations of the 70th anniversary of the CPPCC. We will make full preparations for these celebrations both in work and in theory. We will organize local CPPCC committees and relevant sectors to comprehensively review the CPPCC's experience since its founding and conduct in-depth studies on important theories and practices.

We will take up and assess opinions and suggestions left by members on the CPPCC members' mobile platform. For the celebrations of the CPPCC's 70th anniversary, we will collect cultural and historical materials, publish books, and host exhibitions of paintings, calligraphy, and photos. Using a variety of forms, we will give full expression to the extraordinary journey of growth the CPPCC has taken with the People's Republic and to the spirit and ethos of persistent hard work passed on by our members from generation to generation. With these efforts we will see that CPPCC members take greater pride in their duties, strengthen their sense of mission, and, from a new historical starting point, continue moving forward the cause of the CPPCC.

III. Harnessing Positive Energy for Securing a Decisive Victory in

Building a Moderately Prosperous Society in All Respects

This year is a critical year for us in completing the first Centenary Goal of building a moderately prosperous society in all respects by 2020. In our endeavor to secure a decisive victory in this regard, we are now in the most pivotal period when we must overcome many formidable challenges. It is of the utmost importance that we do our work well this year.

Given both the urgency and formidable nature of our task and the severity and complexity of risks and challenges before us, it is vital that the CPPCC serves and protects the overall interests of the country, determinedly implements the decisions and plans of the CPC Central Committee, and judiciously performs its duties in rallying public support, building consensus, and pooling people's wisdom and energy to make a concerted effort to advance this great cause. This is how the CPPCC will contribute to the celebrations of the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China.

1. Strengthening our sense of responsibility and mission

The building of a moderately prosperous society in all respects is a cause that benefits our population of more than one billion people; it is an important foundational and crucial step in the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation; and it is an endeavor that concerns the happiness of every Chinese person and for which every person shares responsibility. To contribute to this cause is a historic responsibility and sacred mission assigned to committees and committee members at all levels both by the times and by the institution of the CPPCC.

The CPPCC is an important political and organizational vehicle for implementing the system of CPC-led multiparty cooperation and political consultation. As the principal actors in this political organization, CPPCC members must take up their political and historical responsibilities in earnest in their actual work and devote all their efforts to the great cause of building a moderately prosperous society in all respects.

A journey to victory begins only when we take the first step; responsibilities are fulfilled only when we take action; and our commitment to convictions is manifested by our hard work. Bearing in mind our missions and tasks, we will fully mobilize the enthusiasm, initiative, and creativity of all political parties, people's organizations, and individuals from all ethnic groups and sectors of society; and into the main arenas we should strive to channel wisdom, knowledge, and skill as well as human, material, and financial resources. With these efforts, we will be able to fulfill our roles of participating in, carrying out, and promoting this great cause.

2. Fulfilling our role as a body dedicated to consultation

Promoting greater democracy is an important part of our efforts to complete the building of a moderately prosperous society in all respects, and practicing democracy is an important way to seek advice and gather a wide range of opinions on how to secure a decisive victory.

As a body dedicated to consultation, the CPPCC is an arrangement unique to the socialist political system with Chinese characteristics and an important platform for practicing people's democracy. Here, democracy works in two ways. CPPCC members put forward proposals and suggestions on the formulation of policies and improvement of Party and government decisions on the one hand, and the Party and government build consensus among all sectors through consultations on the other.

With over 2,100 National Committee members drawn from 34 sectors of society, it is important that the CPPCC focus its attention on building a moderately prosperous society, fulfill its role as a body dedicated to consultation, and help the CPC and government hear the views of the public and bring together people's ideas. We should focus on hotspot and difficult issues, promptly identify potential risks and dangers, and pro-actively report on social conditions and popular sentiment, so as to provide the Party and government with valuable proposals and suggestions to help resolve issues and defuse risks.

With a view to strengthening areas of weakness, we should incorporate democratic oversight into consultations, and work for the successful completion of all tasks. Paying special attention to the words "in all respects," we should make use of diverse forms of democratic consultation to pool together penetrating insights in the interest of improving people's overall wellbeing and enhancing their sense of fulfillment, happiness, and security.

3. Working to build consensus and promote unity

Consensus is the impetus that carries us forward, and unity is the “magic weapon” that ensures us victory. The formidable tasks, the many problems, risks, and challenges, and the complex demands involved in decisively securing a moderate prosperous society in all respects are unprecedented in scale. Therefore, the CPPCC must fulfill its role as an organization of great unity and solidarity; it must strike a balance between commonality and diversity, and seek common ground while reserving or easing differences. It should enhance commonality without enforcing uniformity, accommodate diversity without losing direction, and make real, thorough, and practical efforts to forge common will and build consensus.

With securing a decisive victory in building a moderately prosperous society in all respects as our source of impetus and target, we need to strengthen theoretical and political guidance and build consensus on sensitive issues, points of risk, and matters of public concern in view of the fact that the CPPCC features a diversity of sectors, strata, and interests.

In line with the plans and requirements of the CPC Central Committee on forestalling and defusing major risks, we should, while performing our various duties, explain policies, and coordinate relations in society through such platforms as committee-member lecture programs and awareness-raising tours for major and special tasks. We should help people from all sectors to look objectively on domestic and international changes, and risks and challenges in reform and development, to create synergy in overcoming difficulties, and to always work together and have the courage to face problems squarely, thereby expanding the common ground for jointly building and sharing a moderately prosperous society in all respects.

4. Striving to improve the quality of our work

General Secretary Xi Jinping has stressed that the moderately prosperous society we are building must earn the people's approval and stand the test of time. This is also the requirement the CPPCC must meet in better serving the work of building a moderately prosperous society in all respects. We should enhance our political awareness and political competence, uphold Party leadership in all of our work, and fully implement the major decisions and plans of the CPC Central Committee on completing the building of a moderately prosperous society in all respects and its requirements for the CPPCC.

We will serve the great cause of building a moderately prosperous society in all respects with common will and concerted action and at a consistent pace. We should take the concrete results of our service to the great cause as the important criterion by which to gauge our work and we should always keep to the correct political direction while pushing our work forward.

We should identify topics calling for attention in completing the building of a moderately prosperous society in all respects, select bases for studies and research into these topics, and combine field work with general studies and surveys with analytical studies. We must resolutely reject discussions based on general impressions and sweeping statements and provide reasonable, evidence-based suggestions and practicable solutions. We should never try to go through the motions or go for bureaucratism in our work.

We should highlight key areas and problems, and focus on major tasks such as acting on the new development philosophy, deepening supply-side structural reform, promoting high-quality economic development, and making progress in the three critical battles against potential risk, poverty, and pollution. By carrying out fact-finding missions, providing practicable solutions, and seeking common ground, we will be able to better fulfill our dual responsibility of offering suggestions and building consensus, and more effectively help to secure a decisive victory in building a moderately prosperous society in all respects.

Fellow Members,

Theory helps usher in a new era, and hard work helps realize dreams. At this new historic juncture, the CPPCC is facing a formidable job and a long journey ahead. However, as it shoulders its new missions and tasks, the CPPCC has a great role to play. Let us unite even closer around the CPC Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core, hold high the great banner of socialism with Chinese characteristics, and follow the guidance of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era. Let us unite as one and forge ahead to make new and even greater contributions to securing a decisive victory in completing the building of a moderately prosperous society in all respects, making great success of socialism with Chinese characteristics for a new era, and realizing the Chinese Dream of national rejuvenation.

The official Chinese version of this report will be released by Xinhua News Agency.

¹ The five-sphere integrated plan is to promote coordinated economic, political, cultural, social, and ecological advancement.

² The four-pronged comprehensive strategy is to make comprehensive moves to finish building a moderately prosperous society in all respects, deepen reform, advance law-based governance, and strengthen Party self-governance.

³ The "three regions" refer to Tibet, the four prefectures of southern Xinjiang—Hotan, Aksu, Kashi, and the Kirgiz Autonomous Prefecture of Kizilsu, and the areas of Sichuan, Yunnan, Gansu, and Qinghai provinces with large Tibetan populations; the "three prefectures" are Liangshan in Sichuan, Nujiang in Yunnan, and Linxia in Gansu.

⁴ The five priority tasks are cutting overcapacity, reducing excess inventory, deleveraging, lowering costs, and strengthening areas of weakness.